Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many members of the (1) British Army, (2) Royal Air Force, and (3) Royal Navy there are; and what were the figures for each service for each of the last five years.

The requested information can be found in the tables below:

Table 1 - UK Regular Forces and Gurkhas Strength by Service as at 1 July for the years 2017 to 2021

Notes to table 1:
1. UK Regulars comprise Full time Service personnel, including Nursing Services, but excluding Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) personnel, Gurkhas (which have been included separately in the table), mobilised Reservists, Military Provost Guard Service (MPGS), Locally Engaged Personnel (LEP), Non Regular Permanent Staff (NRPS), High Readiness Reserve (HRR) and Expeditionary Forces Institute (EFI) personnel. Regular figures include those personnel that have transferred from GURTAM to UKTAP

2. Unless otherwise stated, includes trained and untrained personnel

3. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10, though numbers ending in a “5” have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent the systematic bias caused by always rounding numbers upwards. Additionally, totals and sub-totals are rounded separately and so may not equal the sums of their rounded parts

4. UK Regular Forces and Gurkhas strength figures are also available in Table 3b of the quarterly Service Personnel Statistics publication, produced by Analysis (Tri-Service): https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/quarterly-service-personnel-statistics-2021

5. These figures cover all forces including those based overseas.

Table 2 - Intake to UK Regular Forces and Gurkhas by Service for 12 months ending 30 June for the years 2017 to 2021

Notes to table 2:
1. UK Regulars comprise Full time Service personnel, including Nursing Services, but excluding Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) personnel, Gurkhas (which have been included separately in the table), mobilised Reservists, Military Provost Guard Service (MPGS), Locally Engaged Personnel (LEP), Non Regular Permanent Staff (NRPS), High Readiness Reserve (HRR) and Expeditionary Forces Institute (EFI) personnel. Regular figures include those personnel that have transferred from GURTAM to UKTAP

2. Unless otherwise stated, includes trained and untrained personnel

3. Figures show Intake to UK Regular Forces, both trained and untrained. Intake comprises new entrants, re-entrants, direct trained entrants (including professionally qualified Officers), intake to the Army from the Gurkhas and intake from the reserves

4. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10, though numbers ending in a “5” have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent the systematic bias caused by always rounding numbers upwards. Additionally, totals and sub-totals are rounded separately and so may not equal the sums of their rounded parts

5. UK Regular Forces Intake figures (not including Gurkhas) are also available in Table 5a of the quarterly Service Personnel Statistics publication, produced by Analysis (Tri-Service): https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/quarterly-service-personnel-statistics-2021